Britain doubles polio funding

David Cameron has pledged to double the UK's aid spending on polio to help wipe out the disease.

The prime minister made the announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he said that Britain's donation to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) would be increased to £40 million this year and next.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is also committing an additional £64 million to the campaign through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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The GPEI is a public-private partnership which aims to eradicate polio.

Cases have been cut by 99 per cent over the past two decades, but the disease is still present in more than a dozen countries and is endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Mr Cameron told the World Economic Forum that there is a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rid the world of the evil of polio', but that 'sustained political will' is needed.

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'That's why I'm announcing today that the UK is prepared to fully vaccinate an additional 45 million children against polio, through a doubling of our support to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative over the next two years,' he confirmed.

'In return for that commitment, we ask other donors to do their bit, and affected countries to strengthen their routine immunisation programmes.'

The last known case of polio in the UK was in 1998 thanks to the introduction of an effective vaccine in 1955.

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